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Astronut
The Astronut (Named Astro) is a alien character created by Connie Rasinski and Larz Bourne. He first appeared with Deputy Dawg He later started appearing in his own cartoons, where he had a human friend named Oscar Mild. Background He made his first appearance in the 1960 cartoon "The Space Varmint", which just happens to also be Deputy Dawg's debut, the reason for the character's creation is rather simple, Connie Rasinski wanted to do a cartoon with a funny little Alien, so he designed a funny little alien. He appeared here a one foot extraterrestrial with a tremendous appetite for chicken eggs, he served as a antagonist however it wasn't because he was evil or a jerk, in fact he was pretty friendly, however stealing eggs is a big no no for Deputy Dawg. Muskie along with the other characters referred to the alien as a space varmint, whenever he walked he'd periodically bounce up and down, and he spoke in high pitch bleeps and chirps. He also drove a small red ship. This alien seemed only to be a onetime character, however the studio decided to use him again 3 years later, in the cartoons "Astronut", one would think this is where the character got his name, but really the title is referring to the Sheriff to at the end of the cartoon was launched into space, they still call him the space varmint. In this short our little green friend that a small design tweak, that being he was now much taller, before being the size of a mouse and now being about half the height of a human, he served once again as a good intentioned opponent for the dim witted deputy. His next cartoon "The Hungry Astronut" was his first time being named "The Atronut", and his second time trying to steal eggs from the chicken coop, this is the only short to portray him as a more aggressive and jerkish character, at one point pulling a laser gun out on Deputy Dawg. Well he seemed to be quite a favorite of the writers and directors, as the fallowing year the Astronut began starring in his own self series, but of he was going be a main focus he needed a supporting character, if only to bounce dialog off of. That purpose was served with the addition of Oscar Mild, an ordinary Earth human living in an house located in a small town, who became his pal. Oscar was a soft spoken man, he's very nice, but also incredibly nervous and often in need of help. Their first cartoon together was 1964's "Brother From Outer Space" which showed how the pair first met each other, with the Astronut visiting earth finding it to be a really interesting place even if he barely understood how things worked there, he ended up crashing his ship into Oscar's office where he introduced himself as a otherworldly visitor, he and Oscar hits thing off real quick, and Oscar offered to show the Astronut around town. One major change to the Astronut with this cartoon was that now he could finally speak English, they even referenced his original way of talking in his Deputy Dawg appearances by having him show what his language sounds like before stating that if he spoke that way to everyone it'd get him no where, he was voiced by Dayton Allen. After this the Astronut was finally given a real name, being called Astro. Many of these cartoons involved Oscar having some sort of problem, then Astro would visit his home ( Either by flying down in his ship or somehow appearing out of thin air) and after hearing of said problem he would try to help Oscar out with some kind of gadget or object from his own world, but more often then not things wouldn't play out as planed, a lot of these cartoons seemed to have the overarching message that while the things Astro has on his world are wondrous and work fine there, they simply have no place on earth. Anytime somebody got close to Astro would shapeshift into a dog to avoid being seen. There were a few recurring characters in these cartoons besides for Oscar and Astro, such as Mr. Nicely who was Oscar's boss, he was a real jerk who always overworked and insulted Oscar, then there was Oscar's neighbor Mr. Bellow, who would always get wrapped up in Oscar's adventures despite never learning of Astro, both of whom appeared in 3 shorts. Since the cartoons were all made with the same low budgets it's hard to tell which would made for theaters and which were made for television. The final cartoon Oscar and Astro appeared in was 1971's "No Space Like Home", strangely unlike other TerryToon characters, they have yet to make any further appearances in the way of cameos or guest roles. The Astronut Show The Astronut Show debuted in syndication on August 23, 1965. It was a typical half-hour cartoon show of the time, consisting of three shorts, with the first always being a Astronut cartoon. Stars of the back segments included Sidney the Elephant, Luno and Hashimoto-san. it lasted a year or before ending, or so we thought. During the following decade, 1970s, the show was brought back on the air, but now with other back segments, such as James Hound and Sad Cat. With this revival shorts which had been created but never shown to the public during the 60's were finally released. Filmography This list shows the shorts' release, not production, for instance, the short "Martian Moochers" was made either in 64' or 65', but wasn't released to the public until 1970. 1960 * The Space Varmint (With Deputy Dawg) 1963 * Astronut (With Deputy Dawg) * The Hungry Astronut (With Deputy Dawg) 1964 * Brother From Outer Space * Kisser Plant * Outer Galaxy Gazette * Molecular Mixup 1965 * The Sky's the Limit * Weather Magic * Robots in Toyland * Twinkle Twinkle Little Telestar 1966 * Gems From Gemini * Haunted Housecleaning 1969 * Space Pet * Scientific Sideshow * Balloon Snatcher 1970 * Going Ape * Martian Moochers 1971 * Oscar's Birthday Present * Oscar's Thinking Cap * No Space Like Home The following cartoons have no information on what year they came out * Oscar's Moving Day * Jolly Jupiter * Space Cowboy * Hokey Home Movies * Martian Recipe * The Invisibeam Notes * It was never made clear if Astro was his real name or a nickname. Category:Characters Category:Characters created by Larz Bourne Category:Characters created by Connie Rasinksi Category:Aliens